Any boardroom would be lucky to have the former U.S. Secretary of State.

So here it is ... an open invitation to the Honorable Condoleezza Rice to serve on my start-up company's board of directors. Dr. Rice -- in addition to a modest amount of equity I can offer you for serving on the board of a venture which I believe is going to change the world for the better, we also serve hot coffee and Danish at each board meeting.

Unfortunately, I'm not alone. There are literally hundreds of thousands of corporations across the globe (public, private and non-profit) that pine just for the opportunity to pitch Rice to serve on their board of directors, much less actually have her accept the offer … which is why it is so maddening to see a growing number of online protests over her recent appointment to the board of directors of cloud storage company Dropbox.

Of course, if I have learned anything in my brief career as an entrepreneur in the technology industry, it is this: there will always be naysayers. But calling for a boycott of Dropbox because Condoleezza Rice is joining the company's board of directors? Even through my own entrepreneurial-jaded perspective, this seems absurd. These dissenters, who are for the most part nameless, seem incapable of understanding that not only will they have no impact on Dropbox's bottom line, but that they are potentially adversely impacting the ability of corporations everywhere to recruit qualified and thoughtful individuals to serve on their board of directors.

Dropbox is certainly not your average technology start-up. Founded in 2007, the Silicon Valley company had revenues of more than $200 million last year, has 275 million users and recently raised $325 million in a new round of financing. It is now valued at $10 billion and is widely rumored to be positioning itself for an IPO later this year. Which is why it makes perfect sense that the company recruited Condoleezza Rice to serve on its board. The former U.S. Secretary of State brings an international perspective that a company such as Dropbox will need as it expands to foreign markets – similar to Twitter's strategy when it recruited former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino to its board of directors last year.

However, for those behind the "Drop Dropbox" crusade, Rice's significant attributes and accomplishments are irrelevant. Instead, they claim that Rice's appointment is in direct contradiction to Dropbox's commitment to freedom, openness and ethics. Specifically, they raise such pertinent issues as: "she helped start the Iraq War"; "she was involved in the creation of the Bush administration's torture program"; and "she supports wireless taps". Getting the picture now? This isn't about ethics or openness, this is political persecution. Anyone willing to bet these champions of integrity aren't even Dropbox users?

Two weeks ago Brendan Eich stepped down as CEO of web browser Mozilla after online protests mounted following the discovery of his past financial support of gay marriage opponents in California. Despite arguments to the contrary (from what I expect is the same group of nameless protesters), the circumstances surrounding Eich's departure are not at all similar to Rice's situation. As CEO, Eich was the public face of the company and although the donation in question happened back in 2008, he voluntarily chose sides in what is the social issue of the day. This is not at all like Rice, who as a board member is being harassed for her past positions as a member of President George W. Bush's administration.